We recently connected with Keri-Ann Douglass-Gordon and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Keri-Ann thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?
One of the most defining lessons of my life came long before I ever owned a business, held a camera professionally, or managed a ranch. It started on a small farm in Scotland, long before Kansas ever became home.
When I was growing up, my family worked endlessly—animals don’t take days off, and neither did we. I learned early that responsibility wasn’t something you claimed; it was something you showed up for, every single day, even when it was inconvenient, uncomfortable, or you were exhausted. But the real turning point happened in 2001, during the Foot-and-Mouth outbreak.
For almost nine months, our farm was quarantined. No one in, no one out. My world shrank to the fences of our land, and I watched my parents juggle fear, uncertainty, and responsibility with a calm steadiness that, to this day, I still admire. As a teenager, I didn’t fully understand it—but as a business owner, I finally do.
The lesson was this:
Consistency and integrity matter most when things are hardest.
Not when everything is going right—anyone can show up then.
But when everything is uncertain, that’s when your character, your grit, and your purpose are truly revealed.
That experience shaped me in every part of my business today.
It’s why I show up for my photography clients with reliability and emotional steadiness, even on high-pressure days. It’s why I run my wedding and elopement business the way I do—with calm direction, clear communication, and a quiet confidence that comes from years of learning to stay grounded no matter what’s happening around me.
It’s also why at our ranch, I take responsibility so seriously—because I grew up seeing how much it matters.
Ultimately, that season taught me that business isn’t just about talent or strategy.
It’s about how you carry yourself when no one is watching.
How you lead when things get messy.
How you keep going when giving up would be easier.
That mindset—rooted in a Scottish farm girl’s upbringing—has been the foundation of everything I’ve built since.
Keri-Ann, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Keri-Ann Douglass Gordon, and I’m a luxury wedding, elopement, and destination photographer based in the Kansas City area — though my work takes me all over. I often say my life is a blend of “quiet luxury and ranch grit,” because that’s truly where my story begins: a small working farm in the Scottish Highlands. That childhood shaped who I am long before I ever picked up a camera — the discipline, the calm under pressure, the storytelling mindset, and the ability to find beauty in honest, everyday moments.
How I Got Into Photography
I picked up my first camera when I was 14, using a camera that was older than I was. I fell in love with the way a single frame could hold emotion, movement, and memory all at once. I learnt all I could via books and other professionals. As a junior Hair Salon trainee I started to become evermore creative.
Over the years, photography became the way I documented my life — later, my ranch life in Kansas, my marriage, my daughter, and eventually the weddings and love stories of others. I do equestrian fine art photography, but honestly anyone that wants a photo I will take it. I didn’t also way photograph weddings, I started with family shoots and moved up from there. All the while being a rancher and working in healthcare.
After moving to the U.S., I realized how much I wanted to build something of my own. Photography didn’t start as a business; it started as a calling. It wasn’t long before it grew into K.A. Gordon Photography, where I now specialize in weddings, elopements, destination celebrations, intimate luxury gatherings, editorial portraiture, and fine-art equestrian imagery.
What I Do & Who I Serve
I help couples and clients preserve their most meaningful moments with timeless, elegant, emotional storytelling—the kind of imagery that feels as beautiful today as it will in 30 years.
• Wedding & elopement photography (worldwide)
• Destination coverage — multi-day storytelling, adventure elopements, pre-wedding sessions
• Luxury editorial portraiture
• Fine-art equestrian photography
• Western-elegant ranch weddings (my quiet niche)
• Behind-the-scenes storytelling with iPhone + Ray-Ban Meta content
• Videography add-ons, albums, and heirloom keepsakes
ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES A PHOTO, I WILL TAKE THAT PHOTO.
Every year I do pay what you can sessions and at times I give a wedding away for free. I like to give back.
Beyond photography, I’m also involved in the wedding and hospitality world — I’ve worked as an event coordinator and am currently expanding into destination travel planning to better serve my couples. Imagine you book me as your wedding photographer that can plan you honeymoon.,
What Problems I Solve for My Clients
Weddings are emotional, overwhelming, and fast-paced. My job is to remove stress, create calm, and document everything with intention.
Clients come to me because they want:
• A photographer who leads with confidence yet feels like a calming presence
• Images that look elevated, editorial, and timeless — not trendy
• Someone who understands how to direct, pose, and make them feel comfortable
• A storyteller who captures the in-between moments, not just the Pinterest shot list
• A seamless experience with communication, planning, and travel logistics handled with professionalism
• Someone who can blend luxury aesthetic with real human emotion
I don’t just show up to the day of my couples wedding, I work endless hours helping them with whatever they need. I have had to locate a new venue for couples, lift a bride up because she passed out, helped clients with make up and even get them in their dress.
I’m not just taking photos; I’m protecting their memories.
I often hear from clients that my energy is what sets me apart — grounded, calm, confident, intuitive. That comes directly from years of ranch life, working with animals, raising a child, and living through experiences that require patience and steadiness. As well as working on the cardiac unit for 4 years. Nothing rattles me. Couples often say I will go the extra mile, no questions asked.
But more importantly, my brand stands on:
• Quiet luxury storytelling — classic composition, soft light, emotional depth
• Authenticity — capturing people as they truly are
• A documentary-editorial blend — posed when it matters, candid when it counts
• A deeply personal experience — I care about my couples as humans, not contracts
• Cultural depth — a Scottish upbringing blended with American ranch life gives my work a perspective you don’t see often
• Versatility — from Lake Como to the Flint Hills to a snowy elopement in the mountains
I pride myself on serving everyone. I am a safe space for all couples.
My goal is always the same: create images that feel like memories, not performances.
What I’m Most Proud Of would be the relationships I build with my couples. Many of them become friends. I’m also proud that I built this business from the ground up while raising my daughter, running a ranch with my husband, and navigating a life that is full, busy, chaotic, and beautiful. Don’t get me wrong I have had my moments, but I still can improve and I always want to learn.
I’m proud that clients trust me with moments they’ll show their children one day. That’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly.
I want people to know that my work isn’t just about pretty photos — it’s about presence. It’s about slowing down time, honoring emotion, and giving people the gift of remembering.
Whether I’m documenting a luxury destination wedding or an intimate elopement on a cliffside, my intention is always the same: to create timeless, emotional, quietly luxurious imagery that tells the truth of your love. But serve all couples with whatever they ask of me.
And to do it with warmth, professionalism, and genuine care — because everyone’s story matters.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
One of the biggest pivots in my life happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — a time that changed me in every way.
Before I was a full-time photographer, I worked in the hospital world. I’ve always been someone who cares deeply for others, and for a long time that work felt meaningful. But during the pandemic, everything shifted. The constant loss, the fear, the emotional heaviness — it began to consume me. Instead of leaving work feeling like I had helped someone, I came home carrying grief that wasn’t mine but that I couldn’t shake off. Married to a police officer who worked cases he also had a lot of grief so I never fully opened up about mine but my husband just knew.
On top of that, I was pregnant. I was trying to protect my mental health, my baby, and my sense of who I was, but I felt trapped. I knew I wasn’t myself anymore, yet I was terrified to walk away from the job I knew — the “safe” job, the stable job, the identity I’d held for years.
My husband saw it before I did. He saw how I came home defeated, how the spark I used to have had dimmed. One night, after I broke down crying over another overwhelming shift of a death of a patient I had cared for 3 shifts in a row, he said something that changed everything:
“You’re not meant to live exhausted and unhappy. You’re meant to live your purpose.”
He pushed me — gently but firmly — to leave the hospital and take a chance on myself. He believed in my photography more than I did at the time. He believed in the peace it brought me, the joy I felt behind the camera, the way I lit up when I talked about it. He saw the spark in my eye when I has a session or wedding booked.
I was terrified. Terrified of losing stability. Terrified of disappointing people. Terrified of failing. But I was more terrified of staying somewhere that was breaking me. So I pivoted — not gracefully, not confidently at first, but with determination. I left the hospital. I chose my mental health, my pregnancy, my family, and the future I wanted to build.
That pivot is the reason K.A. Gordon Photography exists today.
It’s the reason I show up so intentionally for my clients.
It’s the reason I built a brand rooted in calm, care, and emotional presence — because I never wanted to feel disconnected or depleted again. I could help everyone no matter the budget they had, no matter the hours, I could make people smile again and cry happy tears.
It taught me:
• that fear is often a sign you’re moving toward something important
• that the “safe” choice isn’t always the right choice
• and that sometimes you need someone who loves you to push you toward your future
Quitting the hospital wasn’t just a career pivot — it was a life pivot.
It was the moment I chose myself, chose joy, and stepped into the path I was truly meant for.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding part of being an artist — especially in the world of weddings and storytelling — is the privilege of preserving moments people will treasure for the rest of their lives. It’s the honor of being invited into the most intimate, emotional chapters of someone’s story and turning them into something tangible, something timeless.
There’s a kind of magic in knowing that the images I create will outlive me.
They’ll be held in hands years from now, passed down, revisited, cried over, smiled at, and remembered. That responsibility is something I never take lightly.
But the reward isn’t just in the final photos — it’s in the process.
It’s in the quiet, sacred moments I get to witness:
a bride whispering “I’m ready,” a father tearing up without saying a word, a nervous groom finally relaxing when he sees the love of his life walk toward him. It’s the laughter, the stillness, the chaos, the embraces, the unfiltered emotion that I get to turn into art.
It’s also the trust. People trust me not just with a job, but with their memories — with the chapters they’ll never get to relive except through the images I create. That trust fuels me. It grounds me. It reminds me why I do what I do.
And on a personal level, there’s a deeper reward too: Photography gives me peace. It helps me slow down, pay attention, and see people with softness and clarity. After coming from a world that was emotionally heavy and often heartbreaking, creating art has become a way of healing, of connecting, of breathing again.
So the most rewarding part for me is knowing that my work means something — to my clients, to their families, and to generations they haven’t even met yet. It’s creating beauty out of real, raw human moments. It’s telling the truth of people’s stories in a way that feels timeless.
That’s the gift, That’s the reward, And that’s why I’ll never stop creating.
No matter the budget, No Matter , I will always find away to make all couples happy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kagordonphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kagordonphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kagordonphotography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keri-ann-douglass-gordon-137354260
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kagordonphotography
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kagordonphotography
Image Credits
The photo of me on a horse is Crystal Socha Photography – the rest are my work